Be Religious About Culture

Recently I attended a Bat Mitzvah of the daughter of an old family friend and received some insight into creating a great company culture. As I sat in the synagogue taking part in this important ritual celebration, something dawned on me that I had not explicitly noticed before:

The elements of a strong religion are very similar to what it takes for a business to design its own strong culture.

Religions, as do businesses, share three fundamental elements that can lead to having its members (or employees) purposely acting by design or intention of its leaders:

Tell Stories that Matter

In religion, “the policies and procedures” for how to live our lives are not given to us as impersonal theoretical statements but rather, we learn them through stories.  Whatever Bible (or Bibles) your religion happens to follow, it is made up of a series of truly personal  and memorable stories with people making tough decisions or extreme personal sacrifices that help us remember why the religion got started and what is important to the religion including what is acceptable (and not acceptable) behavior. 

When there is an issue with a client, how do employees know what to do? Through a stagnant formal written policy issued years ago or do they know compelling stories of how the company founders and early employees resolved issues with clients in the past?

Create Rituals -  Each religion has its own customs, celebrations, and holidays that reinforce the stories of the religion as well as indicate whether somebody is actively involved in the religion or not.  These can be daily, weekly, annually, or by milestones. Participation in these rituals is considered vitally important to the religion.  What gets celebrated and rewarded in your firm?  The day people start or the day people leave or when they reach a certain milestone or achievement?  Do meetings start on time with an agenda or is it expected that meetings start 15 minutes late.  Do people leave right at 5:30 pm or are they expected to stay late or it doesn’t matter as long as their work is completed? How are the accomplishments treated? And what about the failures?

Invest in Training  

When new people join a religion, typically children, but not always, it is up to the experts in the religion, including its local leader (e.g. the local priest, rabbi, minister, imam), to teach the children about the religion. They teach them what is important, what is acceptable, and what is not. What do the experts use for material?  They use the stories and rituals of the religion, so the students can learn what is valued and considered significant in the religion. The stories and rituals of your own business and why they are important should be the starting points for the critical foundational training with your own employees. 

How do people end up losing their religion? They no longer follow or believe in the stories or rituals. Or in some other way the religion repels them.  If the culture of your business is strong, the wrong employees never join or end up being repelled from the organization, either leaving on their own or at some point the culture forces them out.

If you’re not satisfied with the design of your business culture, I respectfully suggest you get some religion.

To learn the best strategies for motivating and retaining top talent, attend NY Report’s event tomorrow morning, “Beyond Motivation: Ignite Your Employees & Watch Profits Grow.”